This study assesses business students’ perceptions of services experienced at New Zealand Tertiary Institute. The questionnaire used in this survey was based on the SERVQUAL scale that contains 20 service attributes, grouped together into five dimensions, Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy. The study found a significant difference between students’ expectations of what an “Excellent tertiary institution” should offer in the way of services and the students’ perceptions of the services currently experienced. A significant difference was also found between the perceptions of local students and international students in all five dimensions with the international students’ perceptions of services being lower than the local students. The Degree students had higher expectations of an excellent tertiary institute than the Diploma students, while the Diploma students rated their service experiences of Unitec as slightly better than the Degree students.

Keywords: Needs; expectations; International students.